The remaining feedback loop: reflect() dumped her full self-state (incl.
self_narrative) into the prompt and asked her to "update" it -> paraphrase -> save
-> feed back -> calcify. That (not the model) is what generated the recurring
"supportive presence balancing emotional intelligence for Brian" drift — even
Dolphin echoed it when handed the saved narrative.
Fix (her inner life now runs on one cognition model):
- reflect() no longer rewrites self_narrative/relationship. It uses associative
grist (cognition.spontaneous_seed + activate) instead of rereading the bio,
reflects THROUGH a stable IDENTITY_ANCHOR (lens, not canvas), and updates only
the transient state (mood axes + noticings + metacognition + journal).
- self_narrative is now slow-consolidated: every CONSOLIDATE_EVERY (5) reflections,
_consolidate_self() re-derives it from accumulated reflections + the anchor —
never from the old narrative (the anti-loop core). Tethered to the anchor so it
grows without drifting into generic-helper land.
- reset_self_narrative() + ran once on prod (her narrative was deeply drifted:
"my core identity as a tool for support... serve Brian and other users").
- Prompts drop the self_narrative/relationship fields. Tests updated +
consolidation tests. Suite 75 green, ruff clean.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Her reflections/metacognition were capped rolling windows (6/5), so older
thoughts were lost for good. Now everything she produces is also appended to a
permanent, append-only journal; the capped lists stay as her working-memory
window for context.
- memory: journal table + add_journal_entry/list_journal
- reflect(): persists every committed reflection + critique to the journal, and
the examine step gains a "journal" field — a deliberate, first-person note she
writes for herself (her knowing journaling), tagged by source (dream/manual)
- web: /journal diary view (kind filters, grouped by day) + /journal/data;
linked from /self
- tests assert reflections + metacognition land in the journal
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
reflect() is now two steps: draft a reflection, then read her own draft back
critically and revise it — catching flattery, sycophantic drift toward "warm
supportive presence," or just-restating-herself — and commit the honest version.
What she catches is stored as a new `metacognition` layer, rendered into her
chat context and shown on /self. This is her thinking about how she thinks, and
a direct counter to the drift we observed.
- self_state: _EXAMINE_PROMPT + two-step reflect (draft -> examine -> revise),
falls back to the draft if the examine step won't parse; metacognition capped
at 5 and surfaced in render_for_context
- fix: load() deep-copies DEFAULT_STATE — the shallow copy let a fresh Lyra's
first reflect mutate the module-level default's nested lists
- self.html: "How she's caught herself thinking" card
- tests: two-step revise + critique recording, and draft-fallback on bad parse
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
serversdown